Identification card



May 16, 1961 D. F. HANNON IDENTIFICATION CARD Filed April 18, 1960 FIG. I

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INVENTOR. DONALD E HANNON IDENTIFICATION CARD Donald F. Hannon, Shaker Heights, Ohio, assignor to Laminators, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, in corporation of Ohio Filed Apr. 18, 1960, Ser. No. 22,815 a claims. (CI. 40-22 This invention pertains to identification cards and more particularly to a laminated. identification card.

This application is a pontinuatign-in-peirt of Donald F. Hannons application Serial No. 764,386, filed September 30, 1958, entitledldentification Card, now U.S. Patent No. 2,932,913 issued April 19,. 1960.

In the past many proposals have been propounded for preparing laminated identification cards. Such cards are used for mariy and diverse purposes including identifying personnel who are entitled to be admitted to areas which are-restricted for the security of the United States. It is essential that a card used for such purposes be resistant to tampering by persons who would seek to alter the card.

As one example of a temper-ingtechnique which has been used to provide falsified identification, dishonest persons harvesometimes been able-to remove an identifying photograph from a prior-known identification card and substitute a false identifying photograph. This has been accomplished by very artfully cutting the protective coataround the periphery of the photograph, removing the photograph, separating the photograph from the protective covering and then substituting a photograph of some person other than the'person the card is intended to idenand seal it imposition with heat. or other means. This sealing has been accomplished insuch a fashion that all evidence of tampering is obliterated to the extent that normal visual observaion cannot detect it.

In the referenced patent, this problem has been substantially corrected.v This invention: is directed to an improvement where tampering is made even more difiicult and even more readily detectable.

One of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a novel and improved identification card having a grid disposed over the message bearing portions of the identification card and formed integrally onto the bonding material of the laminated, protective material in such a fashion that solvent removal of the bonding material will destroy the grid in the solved area.

A more particular object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved identification card having a grid formed at the interface of an identification picture of the card and the bonding material protective coating.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following specification and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of one of the faces of the novel and improved identification card; and

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the card as seen from the plane indicated by the line 2-2 of Figure 1 showing the laminated structure of the novel and improved identification card with the laminates disclosed in greatly exaggerated thickness dimension for clarity of disclosure.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 shows a top plan view of one of the identification cards. The identification card has a central portion 10 which is preferably 2,984,030 Fatented lviay 16,- 1961 paper. The central portion 10 has first and second surfaces 11, 12 both of which may be message bearing surfaces. Ofter identifying information is printed on both of the faces 11, 12. It will be apparent, however, that in many instances identification will only be shown on one face of the central portion 10 and, accordingly, for clarity of illustration this specification is'directed to such a card.

The central portion 10 preferably has an identifying photograph 13 mounted on one face. The photograph will disclose a pictorial representation of the person being identified, while printed information describing the person. may be included in the area generally indicated by the numeral '14. The written information in the area 14 is normally printed or typed on the central portion.

First and second outer. reinforcement sheets 20, 21 are provided, Figure 2. The outer protective sheets 20, 21 are flexible, transparent and tear-resistant. The pre ferred material for these outer protective sheets is sheets of polyester film. The polyester film is a polyethylene glycol ester of terephthalic acid. Expressed another way, the polyester film is polymerized polyethylene glycol ester. This material is sold commercially by the Du Pont de Nemours Company under the trademark Mylar. This material is outstanding for this purpose because of its transparency, stability, tremendous tear resistance, high strength, long life and high degree of impenviousness.

First and second bonding. laminates 23, 24 are provided, Figure 2. The bonding laminates 23, 24 fix the protective sheets 20, 21 to the central portion 10 and tie the sheets together in an imperforate, encompassing envelope. This encompassing envelope provides an exterior sheet which is extremely smooth when supplied in sheet form and, because it is in thermoplastic within operative temperatures, cannot be directly sealed erresealed to a core, particularly to the paper central portion or core. Mylar is the presently known material which is acceptable and. fulfills all these needs.

The bonding laminates are formed of a material which has the characteristics of being thermoplastic, transparent, stable, capable of being heated without noticeable degradation (i.e. inert), and capable of forming a bond. The laminates should also be capable of being formed into thin sheets of uniform thickness dimension. Polyethylene is an inexpensive chemical which is exceptional for this purpose because it has all of the above-outlined characteristics. In the preferred and disclosed embodiment of the device, the polyethylene is bonded to the central portion 10.

It will be seen that the sheets 20, 21 and the laminates 23, 24 together form an impervious protective covering which has outer exposed surfaces 25, 26 and inner bonding surfaces 27, 28 which are fixed to the central portion 10. This covering has an interlocking grid work 30 formed at the interface of surfaces 11, 27 to cover at least the photograph. This grid work is printed on the inner surface 27 of the bonding laminate 23. The grid 30 may include a diamond-shaped open part 31 which may simply take the form of an imprinted part. This diamond-shaped opening aids in detection of tampering. Through this preferred technique a grid is provided which does not appreciably effect the legibility of the card, but which at the same time substantially eliminates any illicit modification of the card.

It has been found that in production the bonding of the bonding laminate to the outer protective coating is quite critical. Where proper bonding is obtained, the two are inseparable. However, where the bonding has a slight imperfection it is not always readily discernible and it is sometimes possible to separate the two.

When this adhesion or bonding of the bonding laminate and the outer protective coating is not perfect, a person illustration.

skilled in tampering can sometimes separate the two. When this was the case, a card made in accordance with the referenced patent, while always bearing visually discernible indicia of tampering, nonetheless, if tampered with, required a visual inspection or preferably a physical manipulation followed by a visual inspection.

- This difiicult to discern tampering was accomplished by first cutting the outer protective coating with a thin knife. This cut would circumscribe the identification photograph. The cut, outer coating would then be separated from the bonding laminate. Since the grid work was printed on the protective coating, it would be separated from the identification card at the same time the coating was. The tamperer would then dissolve the section of bonding laminate over the photograph with a suitable solvent. The identification photograph would be removed and another substituted. A quantity of suitable bonding material would then be laid over the photograph and protective coating with its grid work carefully replaced. A heat seal would then be made which is difiicult to discern. A careful inspection would always reveal the flaw in the grid work. Further, a flexing of the card would cause the cut in the outer protective coating to be revealed since the bonding laminate would, on rescaling, fill that cut.

With the present invention, the described tampering will be visible to almost a careless visual inspection.

The reason is that the dissolving of the bonding laminate will completely destroy the grid printed on it.

Thus, by printing the grid on the laminate 23, tampering becomes virtually impossible. The tamperer is faced with an almost insurmountable problem of printing and aligning an identical, matching grid. He must print and align this grid on the bonding laminate and keep it in alignment when he heat seals his tampered card. Thus, any additional, readily detectable, visual proof of tampering is added to the means of detection available in a card made in accordance with the referenced patent.

In Figure 2, the central portion 10, the photograph 13, the sheets 20, 21, the laminates 23, 24 and the grid work 30 are all shown with greatly exaggerated thickness dimensions. This exaggeration is provided for clarity of In practice, the card will be made as thin as possible and may, for example, be in the neighborhood of ,4 of an inch in thickness.

The card has an overlapping portion 35 which is peripherally disposed about and circumscribes the central portion 10. These overlapping portions are overlapping in the sense that they extend out and beyond the central portion 10 in both longitudinal directions and in both transverse directions as well. The overlapping portion 35 prevents a separation of the sheets and laminates and thereby prevents card tampering by longitudinally slicing the protective laminate. It also strengthens the central portion 10 and gives the card a longer life by preventing longitudinal separation of this central portion.

While the invention has been described with a great deal of clarity and detail, it is believed that it essentially comprises a novel and improved identification card which has a grid work printed on one surface of the bonding laminate.

Although the invention has been described in its prefered form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes, in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

I claim:

1. An identification card comprising a paper core sheet, identification indicia including a photograph carried on the surface of said core sheet, said indicia being protected against tamperng alteration by a protective laminated envelope presenting an exterior surface shell formed of polyethylene glycol ester of terephthalic acid, said laminated envelope incorporating a thermoplastic bond material bonding said exterior shell to said paper core, said bond material located between said surface cated between said surface shell and core sheet, and a grid pattern encased within the laminated envelope at the bonded interface between the thermoplastic bonding material and the photograph.

3. In the device of claim 2, said grid being printed on said bonding material.

No references cited. 

